Food Before One : A Field Guide For Feeding Baby

Confidently and safely feed your baby with the support of a feeding expert.

If you've spend time Googling or crowdsourcing questions about starting your baby on foods, you know how confusing and contradictory all the different baby feeding advice can be.

And you've probably heard that "Food before one is just for fun!" Well, that's not exactly true. Food in your baby's first year should definitely be fun, but it's also an important part of your baby's motor and sensory development and learning. And mealtimes in your baby's first year certainly won't fun if you're worried or nervous about your baby's safety or whether or not you're dong things "right."

As a pediatric Occupational Therapist and baby feeding expert, I want to give you an easy way to get helpful, professional advice about starting your babies on solid food.

As a busy mom, I looked at the stack of unread parenting books on my nightstand and knew that I wanted to make accurate baby feeding information as easy for fellow parents to access as watching an episode of Parenthood on Netflix. So I squeezed my best expert tips and lessons for feeding babies into roughly 90 minutes of video lessons.

Cut through the sea of confusing and unqualified baby feeding advice online and learn a feeding professional's secrets for your baby's best start with food.

What's Included In The Course?

What You'll Learn:

How to know with confidence that your baby is developmentally ready to start solid foods, because not every baby is ready at a particular number of months or weeks old.

Key considerations when you're choosing baby's first foods (hint: you don't have to start with rice cereal).

How to buy feeding gear (high chair, spoons, bowls, etc.) not just because it's cute, but because it's best for baby's feeding skills.

When to feed, how much to feed and when to end a meal - those nagging questions that undermine your confidence.

Steps to take to reduce your baby's risk of every parent's nightmare - choking.

The answers to your question, "Can my baby eat this?" When and how to transition through different foods textures and the one food texture your baby ISN'T ready for!

How to ditch your job as baby feeder by teaching your little one to use a spoon and fork on his own as early as possible.

Strategies for skipping the Sippy Cup (and why you should) by teaching baby to drink from an open cup and straw cup.

When to worry and when to relax. What mealtime red flags signal that your baby may need the help of a feeding professional.

Course Outline:

Facebook Live Q&A About The Course:

Frequently Asked Questions

I've already started feeding my baby. Will I still learn something?

ABSOLUTELY. But how much of the course you find helpful will depend on how far into solid foods your baby is and how it's going. If feeding is going well, you can skip the two lessons that discuss signs of readiness and choosing baby's very first foods (approx. 15 minutes of the course).

Roughly 25 minutes of the course tackles a way of progressing baby through food textures from purees to solids. If your baby is still on purees or soft foods and you're not sure how to know when baby is ready for other foods, you'll still find this lesson helpful. Or if you feel your baby is stuck on a certain texture and you aren't sure how to move on, you'll find value in this lesson. Nearly all course participants find the sections on choosing baby supplies (like bowls and cups), choking prevention, how much and when baby should be eating and independent feeding skills like using a spoon, fork, cup and straw very helpful, regardless of how far along their baby is with feeding.

Still not sure? Email me and I'm happy to help you figure out if this course is right for you.

I want to do Baby Led Weaning. Is this course right for me?

If you're heart-set on starting your baby exclusively on solid chunks of food right from the start, you'll likely find much of the content in this course contradictory to that method. What you may be surprised to learn, however, is that using the Fast Track To Solids approach described in this course, many babies finger-feed noodles, bread, meat and solid fruits and vegetables by 9-10 months of age, enjoying many of the same foods as the rest of their families. The main differences are (1) how they got to that point, (2) the size of the solid foods offered and (3) the exclusion of the most difficult food textures until baby is developmentally ready.

The approach outlined in this course is perfect for parents who want to encourage independence and self-feeding, who want their babies eating table foods with the rest of the family as quickly as possible and who want safety to be a top priority when introducing foods.

Is this a complete baby-feeding program or system?

No. I wish I could offer you a total feeding plan - week by week instructions and recipes - wrapped up neatly with a bow. But every baby is different. Every family's food choices are different. What I offer is an approach, a way of understanding food textures and your baby's feeding skills that helps you RESPECT your baby's cues and allows you to feed your baby they types of foods your family eats.

So whether you'll be making your own baby food or buying store-bought foods, sharing flavorful ethnic dishes or Grandma's crock pot favorites you'll have the knowledge and confidence to safely and happily feed your baby!